Rural communities in the West will “shrivel and die” if thousands more affordable homes for local people are not built in the next few years.

That was the dire warning from a range of rural champions, from the Countryside Alliance to trade unions and housing associations, who said the region had failed spectacularly to ensure enough new affordable housing was being built.

The Countryside Alliance said it had discovered that while local councils had identified a need for more than 76,000 new affordable homes in rural areas last year, only 17,000 ended up getting planning permission – a shortfall of 78 per cent.

Its chief executive Alice Barnard warned that a lack of affordable homes in rural parts of the West could lead to the “break-up of communities and a loss of services”.

“Even in the current difficult economic climate, meeting rural housing need must continue to be a priority for the Government, its agencies and local authorities,” she said.

“The research highlights that affordable housing provision is a huge challenge in both urban and rural areas.

“But if the rural need for affordable housing is not addressed, and urgently, many of those communities upon which our countryside depends, will shrivel and die,” she warned.

According to the South West Housing Initiative, a coalition of housing associations, local councils and trade unions, set up to lobby over what it said was a “crisis” in the region, the problem in the West is worse than anywhere else.

Some 800,000 people have moved from the city to the countryside in the past few years, sending house prices rocketing out of the reach of local people who then need rented homes instead.

“This region has the country’s biggest housing crisis, with the largest affordability gap between average house prices and average earnings, and the largest gap between the number of homes needed and the number being built,” said SWHI chairman Richard Kitson.

“There is a proven need for at least 25,000 extra homes per year in the South West.

“Right now, less than half that number is being built, leading to a dire problem for communities wanting to house their young people and retain their local services, for key workers in the public sector and for employers needing to recruit and retain staff,” he added.

A Government spokesman said changes to the planning rules would give rural communities more power to build more affordable homes, and a New Homes Bonus would encourage councils to allow it.

But the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England warned the Government’s planning changes would benefit private house builders first.

Shaun Spiers said while the CPRE supported affordable housing for rural communities, it should not be tacked on to huge developments on greenfield sites.

“The new framework will make the countryside and local character much less safe from damaging and unnecessary development,” said Mr Spiers.